Poster ‘war’ continues in Lagos as police, LASAA cross path

While claims of regulating outdoor advertisements by the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) is yet to have any positive impact on the state environment, the state police command seems to be worsening the situation.

Political and religious posters, banners and leaflets have continued to deface the environ- ment with the regulator – LASAA, seemingly unable to invoke the relevant provisions of its enabling law to check the ugly trend.

On the account of weak enforcement of the law, politicians and religious bodies have not stopped engaging in indiscriminate past- ing of posters and banners on bridges, street corners, roundabouts and road medians in a manner that tends to make mockery of the state government’s drive to make Lagos a model megacity.

The ‘poster war’ peaked in the run-up to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries held at the Onikan Stadium on De- cember 10 and 11, 2014 and the Event Centre at Oregun, Ikeja on December 8, 2014.

A few days to the APC primary, specifi- cally Monday, Lagos woke up to political post- ers taken to a different level when the posters

of one of the candidates who was alleged to have been sponsored by an influential figure in the government literally took over street corners and major highways in the state while LASAA ‘slept’. With the candidates of all the political parties in the February gen- eral elections now picked, the ‘poster war’ is becoming fiercer as the candidates and their parties try to outshine one another.

From Surulere to Ojo, Lagos Island to Ali- mosho, Apapa to Ikeja, Agege to Gbagada and so on, the streets are being taken over by ban- ners and posters majorly of the two main po- litical parties – APC and PDP.

Lagos remains the darling state of Nige- rian politics: it is the economic and financial hub of West Africa with internally generated revenue hovering between N20 and N21bn monthly. The ruling APC and the opposition party (PDP) are locked-horn in battle and ‘the ground (environment) is suffering’ with po- litical posters making a mess of its beauty.

But suddenly realising the environment is “bleeding” LASAA recently reeled out rules backed by its enabling laws which the par- ties and their campaigners must observe in their campaigns. George Noah, managing director/ CEO of LASAA said “government has observed with astonishment the cur- rent indiscriminate trend of pasting political posters, banners and other items of political advertisement on major highways and roads in the state.

“The agency wishes to remind the general

public particularly political parties, politicians, political activists, their supporters and other campaigners that by the provisions of the enabling law which regulates and control out- door advertisement signs and displays in La- gos State, all outdoor advertisements require LASAA’s authorisation through the issuance of permit.

“This information has become necessary to educate members of the public and admon- ish them against indiscriminate pasting of posters on highways, roads, verges, sidewalks and bridges in Lagos State.”

He continued saying: “Also of concern to us is that the materials used for these political campaigns if unchecked, have the tendency of defacing and obliterating the aesthetic val- ue and landscape of our city which the state government has jealously preserved over the years. To this end, LASAA will in the next few weeks publish a list of identified designated areas where political materials such as posters and banners will be allowed.”

He said the information was without prej- udice to any political party or association, add- ing that “it is our intention to ensure fairness and to apply the rules without sentiments. Our common interest is to establish sanity and protect the environment from further defacement as a result of visual blight,” LA- SAA said adding that it would be removing all illegal posters from the state.

However, days after LASAA issued the statement the Lagos police command roared.

Kayode Aderanti, the state police commis- sioner, issued a warning to LASAA threaten- ing to arrest any LASAA official removing po- litical posters from the streets and highways in the state.

He said his office has recently been inun- dated with series of complaints from candi- dates of other political parties alleging mass pulling down of their posters and billboards by officials of LASAA, stressing that this was unfair to other political parties.

“The command further wishes to enjoin all political parties to go about their cam- paigns in an atmosphere of peace and con- cord. Various agencies of government are also encouraged to be fair to all concerned in all their oversight functions to ensure that no political party is shut out of the electoral space,” said Aderanti.

But in a swift response to the police’s position, Noah, on Tuesday said since re- moval of posters that deface the environ- ment was a statutory obligation of LASAA, it would be unlawful for the police to arrest any LASSA employee for carrying out their lawful duty.

“The removal of posters that deface our environment is a statutory obligation of LA- SAA. The agency is therefore baffled that the police responsible for enforcing the laws of this nation is encouraging and expressly sup- porting the flagrant disregard and contraven- tion of environmental guidelines issued to all political parties,” Noah stated.

Noah revealed that over 100,000 political posters were illegally deployed in the state on a daily basis, adding that removal of these materials had been based on fairness and equality. He said there were 727 billboards approved by LASAA in the state out of which the agency owns just 26 for creating aware- ness for the state government.

JOSHUA BASSEY